Controlling device for elevators



(No Model.) Sheets-Sheet 1.

G. H. REYNOLDS.

CONTROLLING DEVICE FOR ELEVATORS.

Patented July 14,1891.

3 sheets -sh'eet '2.

O (No Model.)

G. H. REYNOLDS. CONTROLLING DEVICE FOR ELEVATORS. No. 456,121.

Patented July 14,1891.

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3 Sheets-Sheet 3.

(No Model.)

G.H.REYNOLDS. CONTROLLING DEVICE FOR ELEVATORS.

No. 456,121. Patented July 14, 1891.

NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE H. REYNOLDS, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGN- MENTS, TO THE NATIONAL COMPANY, OF ILLINOIS.

CONTROLLING DEVICE FOR ELEVATORS.

SPE(IIIFIGA'IION forming part of Letters Patent No. 456,121, dated July 14, 1891.

Application filed January 26, 1837. Serial No. 225,538. (No model.)

T0 at whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE H. REYNOLDS, of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Means for Controlling the Operation of Elevators, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to that class of appliances for stopping, starting, and reversing the movements of elevator-cages illustrated in Letters Patent of the United States No. 317,202, granted to me May 5, 1887; and my invention consists in means whereby the operator in the cage may cause the power of a Weight to act to shift the controlling device, as fully set forth hereinafter, and in certain details of construction, illustrated in the ac-.

companying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a side View of so much of an elevator apparatus as is necessary to illustrate my improvement. Figs. 2, 3, and 4 are side views of elevator apparatus, showingmy said improvements embodied in different forms and arrangements of parts.

For the sake of clearness I have illustrated only so much of an elevator apparatus as is required to exemplify my invention, and have therefore omitted the operating-engine, guides, controlling device, and. other parts, which may all be of well-known or suitable construction.

With the cage or platform A, constructed in any suitable manner, is connected or combined any desirable elevating and lowering appliancesas, for instance, the cable B, ex tending over a guide-pulley O to the engine, and said engine is provided with any suitable controlling device, (belt-shifter, switch, or valve,) according to the character of the engine constructed to stop, start, and reverse the movement of the cage-as, for example, that shown in Letters Patent No. 317,202.

In order that the controlling device may be shifted by the operator in the car or cage whether the latter is in motion or at rest, and at any point of its travel, so as to stop the cage moving in either direction and start it in either direction from a point of rest, I make use of two ropes or cables EE, connected in any suitable manner with the controlling device, and I place upon the cage a device L, of any suitable character, whereby the operator may draw upon or relax either cable at will, and I connect with both cables a weight, the power of which, as one or the other cable is relaxed, is caused to act upon the opposite cable, so as to exert its power through said cable and connections upon the controlling device to shift the same in one direction,-the opposite movement of'the controlling device being effected by throwing the power of the weight upon the opposite cable. Different arrangements and connections of running cables, of devices for taking up and paying out the cables, and different arrangements of the weight may be employed withoutdeparting from the essential features of my invention, and I have illustrated in the drawings several of the many such arrangements which may be employed. Thus in Fig. 1 each traveling cable passes over a guide-pulley F, turning in fixed bearings at the top of the well and in the form of a bight round a guide-pulley G at the end of a lever H, vibrating upon the fulcrum Z at the bottom of the well, the lever H being provided with an arm h, connected with the valve or other controlling device-as, for instance, with a valverod K. In this construction the two cables E E are made continuous, and the take-up device L on the car consists of a shaft having a vertical hand-lever extending into the .car and carrying below the car a curved cross-arm or crescent Z Z, grooved to receive the cable, which can be adjusted by slipping it along the groove until in proper position and then it is firmly secured by tightening a clamp '12, when the operation will be the same as if two separate sections were attached at their ends to the ends of the arm or crescent Z Z or the lever Z, as in Fig. 2. The opposite ends of both cables are suitably connected to the same weight M, as through themedium of eyebolts 6, having adjusting-nuts k, and said weight may be arranged above the cage, being shown in Fig. 1 as perforated for the passage of the hoisting-cable B; but the location of the weight M, like that of the clamp-crescent, may be variedwithout essentially changing the invention. In Fig. 3 it is shown suspended beneath the car. There are four sheaves 0 0 0 0 on the cross-arm Z two at the as illustrated in Fi 2 where the wei ht is above the cage, and in Fig. 4, in which the several parts illustrated in Figs. 1, 2, and 3 are assembled in one apparatusthe cables being attached to a clamp-crescent Z Z, located above the car, instead of below the car, as shown in Fig. 1. Still other permutations and combinations of the elements shown might be named; but as they, like the two last named, involve neither invention nor essential change in the operation of the apparatus, no further mention is necessary.

It is evident that whatever may be the position of the controlling device it will not be affected by the movement of the cage in either direction; that each cable will travel around its pulleys F G without any tendency to alter the position of the lever H, and that the weight M will accompany the movements of the cage, constantly maintaining .substan tially its relative position thereto, and exerting a like efiect upon both cables so long as the operating device is in its mid-position. If the operator, however, shifts the position of the operating device so as to relax either cable-if, for instance, he swings the lever to the right to relax the right-hand cable Ethen the potential of the weight will be upon the opposite or left-hand cable E and the power of the weight will be exerted to lift the lefthand end of the lever H; but this is not necessarily accompanied by any material downward movement of the weight, inasmuch as the left-hand end of the cross'arm or clampcrescent Z Z is also raised, taking up the connected end of the cable. The controlling device is thus shifted in one direction, and when the take-up device is moved to relax the strain upon the left-hand cable the power of the weight exerted upon the right-hand cable throws up the right-hand end of the lever H, and shifts the valve in the opposite directionthat is, the entire weight of M, or so much thereof as may be needed to move the valve, is thrown on the cable whose bight is shortened.

It will be evident that the weight M must be sufficient to overcome the friction of the controlling device and the intermediate c011- nections to such an extent that it will begin to act to move these parts as soon as the tension upon either cable is relaxed to the slightest extent, and that by the use of a suitable device upon the cage whereby the operator may relax either cable at will he is thus enabled to throw the potential or power of the weight to a greater or less extent upon the opposite cable, thereby shifting the controlling device.

A further efiect of the weight M is to take up any slack that may result from the elongation of the cable due to variations of temperature, stretching, or other cause, both cables being maintained uniformly tau-t so that their elongation or contraction from such causes cannot affect the position of the controlling device.

lVithout limiting myself to the construction of parts shown, I claim- 1. The combination, with the cage, of two traveling cables connected with the controlling device and with the operating device, and connected at their ends with a single weight, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. In an elevator apparatus, the combination of a cage, cables connected with the cage to travel therewith and also connected with the operating device and with a single weight, and a device to relax and tighten or to take up and pay out said cables to throw the power of the weight upon one or the other to shift the controlling device, substantially as set forth.

3. In controlling mechanisms for elevators, the combination of a cable consisting of two running parts attached to the cage, movable parallel levers and sheaves over which the cable passes to form bights, and a clamp, such as N, for adjusting the relative lengths of the parts of said cable,substantially as described.

GEO. ll. REYNOLDS.

Witnesses:

.T. H. RAYMOND, E. (JRUsE. 

